My mum had to step over a dead body

“Mainly the kids, because obviously their voices, their high pitched voices – that will remain with me for a long time. I could hear them screaming for their lives.”

Rishan Elcock lives in Grenfell Tower and says his mother and five-year-old sister were in the tower for five hours in their 11th-floor flat.

He said to the BBC: “The fire brigade told them to wait. My mum was panicking and I was panicking. She eventually got out and got taken to hospital shortly after.

“She opened the door and she said she had to step over a dead body to get out.”

‘Don’t jump’

Grenfell Tower resident Paul Mennacer, who was asleep on the seventh floor when the fire broke out, said the fire alarms in the building had not gone off.

He told the BBC: “I was fast asleep. It was only the sound of people screaming: ‘Don’t jump, don’t jump off the building” – which I assume people must’ve been doing to escape the fire – that’s the only reason I woke up.

“I looked out the window and I saw loads of people running away, go down the fire escape. I looked at the flats near the lift and all I could see was black smoke was coming towards my face”.

Residents trapped

Emma, a local eyewitness, said: “I saw something on social media about Grenfell Tower around 12.20am and so my first instinct was to get everyone in the house to help out.

“I could hear people screaming and asking for help. I heard one woman say I’ve got a baby, I’m trapped, please help us get out’. The fire was massive on one side of the building.”

Smoke pours from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. (PA)

One resident told Good Morning Britain they could not hear a smoke alarm ringing in the general areas of the tower block as she escaped.

I was just screaming at people: ‘Get out, get out’ and they were screaming back at me: ‘We can’t, the corridors are full of smoke – Jodie Martin

Another told the BBC she had seen lights flashing on and off in flats higher up in the block where residents were trying to alert emergency services they were still inside.

It spread so quickly

Muna Ali, 45, who lives close to the block, told the BBC the fire spread rapidly.

“The fire started on the upper floors … oh my goodness, it spread so quickly, it had completely spread within half an hour.

“My friends live on the fourth floor, someone knocked on their door – they didn’t know – and they got out. They have three children.

“Some people were knocking on doors but the people inside didn’t open the door.

“I have lived here almost 21 years and I have never seen anything like this – at first I thought it was terrorism, we were just panicking.”

‘I could see smoke everywhere’

One of the block’s residents, Michael Paramasivan, told BBC Radio: “It was an inferno.

“As we went past the fourth floor it was completely thick black smoke. As we got outside I’m looking up at the block and it was just going up. It was like pyrotechnics. It was just unbelievable how quick it was burning.”

Ambulances are stationed at a huge fire engulfing the Grenfell Tower early June 14, 2017 in west London.(Pic: Getty Images)

There were kids at the window, people flashing their phones for help, but the fire brigade couldn’t get upstairs – David Benjamin

Eyewitness Jodie Martin said he ran to the scene to try and help trapped residents just as the first fire engine was arriving. “There was bits of building falling off all around me, I scalded my shin on a hot piece of metal that had fallen off the building,” he told BBC Radio.

“I was just screaming at people: ‘Get out, get out’ and they were screaming back at me: ‘We can’t, the corridors are full of smoke’,” he told BBC Radio.

Actor and writer Tim Downie, who lives around 600 metres from the scene in Latimer Road, told the Press Association he feared the block could collapse. He said: “It’s horrendous. The whole building is engulfed in flames. It’s gone. It’s just a matter of time before this building collapses.

“People have been bringing water, clothes, anything they’ve got to help, out to the cordon. “I have seen people coming out in their bedclothes – it’s just very distressing.”

Firefighters run towards the blaze

A man who lived on the 17th floor said: “As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out the building as possible.”

He tolf LBC Radio he warned neighbours close after hearing the sound of the firetrucks.

“I went outside my house and I could smell the smoke. I looked out my window, I leaned over and I could see the fire blazing up.

“I woke up my auntie who was sleeping, it was about 1.15am, and we started to make our way down.

“I warned a couple of my neighbours, the ones nearest to me, and we basically went as fast as we could.”

Firefighters couldn’t reach upper floors

Resident David Benjamin lives on the floor where the fire broke out. He told the BBC: “It was literally the flat opposite us.”

He was woken by a neighbour banging loudly on his door and shouting “fire!”

“I looked through the keyhole and saw a couple of people running downstairs where the fire exit is.”

He said there was thick smoke filling the corridor by the time he opened the door.

“I shut the door and thought maybe it might be safer to stay inside. But then we found our neighbour – she said ‘get out, get out’. The smoke alarms started going off inside our house.

“We rushed out, rushed down the stairs. There were kids at the window, people flashing their phones for help, but the fire brigade couldn’t get upstairs.”

Every firefighter rescued someone

Michelle Active, who lives in a building opposite the flats, told i she was evacuated from her premises at 2.20am. She heard banging on doors and was told to leave.

Ms Active said she wasn’t immediately aware of what was going on and was taken to nearby Harrow Club, along with other residents in buildings nearby. She is now being sent to another centre.

The fire brigade said 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters had been called to the blaze in Grenfell Tower, which has 120 flats. (Pic: Getty)

One firefighter who has been at the scene since 1am told i every firefighter that went into the building came out having rescued someone. He’s not clear about if people are still being rescued at present.

i reports at the scene

Additional reporting by agencies

iNews

https://inews.co.uk

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